Anthony Nobles’ editorial (“The price of student parking”, 4/17/2009) suffers from a few important misconceptions. First, access to low-cost, guaranteed, and plentiful parking is a privilege, not a right. This kind of attitude is typical of Americans in general, but perhaps more prevalent in our community. The cost quoted for reserved parking areas is correct ($444), but a lower cost option exists (an Emmet-Ivy Garage permit costs $192).
Secondly, Nobles states that “the University should place a greater emphasis on allow[ing] students the convenience of parking a car on-Grounds,” so it would seem that he thinks the goal of Parking & Transportation and the University generally is to get more students in cars. This is absolutely not the case. As a student member of the Transportation & Parking Committee, I can attest to the University’s principal goal of promoting environmentally-friendly and traffic-reducing modes of transport, including riding on the University’s bus system, biking, walking, and carpooling. Central Grounds is a highly-trafficked pedestrian area, and the flow of cars along McCormick Rd. poses a major safety hazard.
Thirdly, in arguing for the convenience of driving to Grounds, Nobles inaccurately states that riding the Northline bus from Central Grounds to North Grounds housing areas is an hour-long round trip. An entire loop of Northline is one hour; a bus ride from Grounds to McDonald’s (Northline’s endpoint) is twenty minutes maximum. Additionally, UTS schedules are posted online and bus arrival times are provided through its GPS system to ensure the shortest possible wait.
Lastly, Nobles’ “solution” is completely illogical – he suggests that instead of raising costs in response to higher demand, building “extra lots or garages could provide a reasonable solution.” I wonder where Nobles thinks U.Va. should find the money or space to build new lots. The recently-built 560-space Culbreth Road Garage cost around $14 million to build – amounting to about $25,000 a space (a price that does not include maintenance, lighting, etc). I also doubt that any one in the University community would applaud a decision to tear down the Lawn, Nameless Field, Carr’s Hill Field, or the Dell Pond to build a new parking lot. At some point, we must realize that the solution to the parking problems at U.Va. is not to increase incentives to drive, but to wean ourselves off of our unsustainable addiction to cars. We students should take the lead.
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